Hi! I'm on a time limit here, so I can only say so much.... I'm not in Ireland yet, we're getting on the plane at 5:00 today. Right now i'm in vancouver. My parents surprised my sister with tickets to see the Jonas Brothers concert. Of course she figured it out right away!
Anyway, not much to say at the moment! I'll write again whenever I get the chance.
Seeya!

(By the way, there is an EIGHT hour difference where i'm goin'! My Wednesday will officially not exist! )

July 3 2009

We arrived in Dublin Ireland last night but we were so tiered, we did nothing but drive to our hotel and sleep the whole night through! Today we went about the REAL Dublin city, (which actually isn't all that big,) and checked out the sights. It isn't a wonder why Ireland's colour is green; everything here is GREEN! There is sooooo much foliage, even on the main highways the plants are trying to take over the road! It's bootiful!

The flight over here was truly a test of patience. The first plane that went from Vancouver to England was a whole over-nighter. I stayed up ALL night, as expected, but in the morning (as expected, ,) I was really cranky. That's what ya get I guess. As we flew over Greenland, I happened to look out the window and I saw the most amazing scenery. Picture this; A nearly frozen ocean below a red-orange sky with a pink setting sun. It was the kind of beauty you can only appreciate from some thousand feet.

Well, that's all the time I have for now!
AvalonGabriel

P.S. I've discovered that an Irish accent sounds a lot like a wierd mix of American and English accents together! Oh, and because of the time difference, we're really messed up. I'm still getting used to it.

Love Ya'll!


July 4 2009
Turns out that Dublin is no different than any other city; on Friday, the day we got into Dublin, a young man was stabbed in the neck outside the bank in the downtown area. Apparently he's 'fighting for his life in the hospital.' Sad. Every city has thier crimes. On the tour we actually drove by the bank and saw the CSI Dublin working on the crime scene! Yay!
Anyway, i'm running out of time! Type to ya later!


(Same day)
We left Dublin and are now in the cute little town of Waterford, Ireland. I think I like this place better even though it does smell faintly like sewage. It's cute though. Ireland has the most beautiful, intricate churches and absoloutley stunning scenery!
A couple things I forgot to mention when we were in Dublin;

1. Dublin is famous for the Guiness brewery, the largest brewery.... ever. But now their selling off the 60- something acher land for something else. Our guide on the bus tour mentioned that Guiness was doing a new advertising campaine even though they 'hardly needed any more modivation to drink thier stuff.' Mum tried some of the world-famous Guiness at dinner today! I snuck a little sip and didn't like it at all. (Hey, serves me right, i'm under-aged. )
Goodness me, thier's quie a loud party going on next door. But that's beside the point.

2. The steering wheel is on the WRONG SIDE OF THE CAR!! Wait, the OTHER side of the car. EVERYTHING is so switched around, it's a nighmare to figure out. And my dad thinks he knows how to handle our switched-around rental car so he's roarin' around the already tiny, narrow streets as if he were in a go-cart, not a rediculesly jam-packed car with five people inside. That's another thing; we could not have gotten a smaller car if we tried! We have to do amazing acrobatics just to get in and out of the tiny thing!! We're all pretty cranky and stressed by the end of the ride.

Well, that's about all the time I have for now. Seeya!




July 5 or 6 or sumthin'

So we left Waterford and headed on down to a little town called Blarney. We visited the Blarney castle which was totally awesome and amazing. Fantasy artists, YOU MUST GO THERE.
There's this old tradition that when you reach the top of the Blarney castle, you have to go upside down and kiss the Blarney stone. WHY you would want to do that, I have no idea. My mom felt it was her duty to honor the tradition and had her picture taken kissing the old germ-infested rock. The castle included all kinds of awesome rooms like a dungeon, the 'murder hole,' bedrooms, a family room, a kitchen and stuff. Oo, and the winding staircase to the top was perilous but awesome. I was so afraid that I would slip and loose my camera.
Afterwards we visited the Blarney wool factory which turned out to be basically an oversized gift shop. But we found a fantastic hotel right next to the factory at a great price! (Single beds! Eeeeee! ) It's really nice. I imagine i'll get a good night's sleep. Unlike LAST night.
Lemme tell you how bad last night was. The hotel we were staying in, which was awesome in desine and nothing else, was a fairly old building with loud, creaky floors and no sound insulation and WAY too many stairs. There was a wedding party going on that night, but the lady at the desk told us she'd get us the QUIET side of the hotel. Yeah, right. So at four in the morning, these hungover shmucks come thundering up the stairs and start playing music, talking really loud and dropping things on the already creaky floor for half an hour. I hate to be racist, but friday night + drinks+ a party+ Irish people = NOISE. And I was having enough trouble getting to sleep as it was! The floor, as I said, were loud and creaky, the bed was hard and the pillows were like rocks. And when I got up in the middle of the night, I woke both my sister AND my grandma up because of how noisy the floors were. I actually cried out of frustration that night.
Oh well, my sleep tonight will be somewhat better I hope!
(If I forgot anything, i'll add it on.)
Bye!


July 7th

Well, we're in Limmrick now! We passed through a cute little town called Kenmare, but other than that, we haven't been much else. One thing i've noticed on ouragonizingly long car rides was that the weather changes REALLY fast. Seriously, there is a fifteen minute time interval. When the fifteen minutes are up, the weather changes. Sun, rain, sun, rain. I am not exaggerating. And it seems the rain has to come in short torrents or nothing. Yep. And the scenery is just beauuutiful!
Oh, and we named the GPS system Nora. Jillian, (my sister,) is convinced Nora is out to kill us. I swear, that thing is palnning some evil plot to drive us off a cliff. Don't- worry- pathetic- gullible- humans. I- know- where- i'm- going. Mwa- ha- ha.
Well, I can't think of much else to say! Write Later! Bye!



July sumthin'

Well, a week into the trip and I have given up on clean hair! We went from Limmerick to Galway, a somewhat nicer but higher priced place. We stopped by the Moher cliffs which were amazing! There was also this little castle that you could go in. (Yeah, for two euros! What a rip off!) But yah. There isn't really much action going on that I can tell you. Oh well.
(Oh and we lost some of our clothes! we accidentally left a laundry bag behind and we're going to phone the hotel to see if we can get it back. Blaaaarg.... )


As the vacation goes on, I start to care less and less what day it is.

I don't know what the date is and I don't know where we are. All I know is that it's raining and cold as Canada and we're somewhere in Ireland.
We stayed at this really neat BNB last night! All the BnB's here in Ireland are really quite cool. The houses are kinda old, but updated so they look fantasy-ish but most of the time don't smell like mould. Heh, we stayed up till around midnight last night watching this totally awesome Jackie-chan movie. (I MUST find out the title.) But, yah.
Well, i'll be coming home on the 27th of July, but until then, Seeya from Ireland!



July 11

Heya!! I'm here now in northern Ireland at a lovely li'l BnB called Groarty manor. (There's a party going on next door, but luckily we can't hear a thing. The hosts are wonderful! ) Tommorow we'll be heading into the more dodgy part of town and I heard that the place we're going to soon, Belfast city, will also be quite..... unnerving. Apparently there was/ is conflict going on and Dad said I should expect armed soldiers to be everywhere. *shudder* I hate guns. Can't stand them.
Anyway, yes. It's raining, (what a surprise, it's been doin' that for days, ) but I don't really mind. It's a lot like home, actually.
I feel like such an idiot sometimes because I can't understand a word some people are saying. Especially in those cute little restaraunts, the waitresses will come up to take our order, and I think they're speaking a completley different language. I look sooooo stupid just sitting there like *stupid look on face* "Whuuuuuut??" And also, it's hard to determind if people are tourists from another country, or locals speaking Gailic. (All the signs are in english and Gailic. The Irish consider it to be thier language. I like it, actually. It's really cool. Sounds like elven.)
Well, i'm taking advantage of our loverly hosts' free internet, perhaps I oughta give someone else a turn...... Naaaaaaahhhhh!!!
Seeya! Peace out!


July 13

Well, I wasted a lot of minutes trying to get the stupid internet to work, so i'm just gonna give you the basics;
We visited/ quickly drove through Londondarry. It was sad. People were still fighting and dad said the soldiers put thier guns away only two weeks ago.
'Free Londondarry' in not so free after all.
Aaaand we visited the giants causway which was totally awesome! I'll have pictures uploaded later when I get home! There were like, these perfect little hexagon stones, all naturally formed! One of the great wonders of the world. Also, in Belfast, (Which is where we are now,) there is this huge Ireland-wide celebration going on. 'Orange day' or whatever. I personally don't agree with it cuz it's all about the english celebrating how they crushed the Irish in battles past. I don't like that idea at all. Though I must admit, it is fun to watch the parades. Funny, instead of celebrating Independance day, they celebrate dominance day...... (Dad said a few years ago, the Irish would get all miffed and throw bottles and sticks n stones and stuff. I don't blame them AT ALL. I'D get mad if the people who overthrew my country decided to have a parade to celebrate thier dominance on the streets of my own country to rub it in my face! It's like 'haha we beat you, now we're gonna party all over your streets to remind you of how weak you are!' Don' like it....)
Well, we will be getting on a plane to Iceland tommorow, so that should be fun! Today is our last day in Ireland.
That's all i have time to say at the moment! Ciao!


July 14

Well, here we are in Reykjavik (Ray- ka- vic), Iceland! The first part of our trip is over..... I have plenty of time to give yah a proper update. (free internet! Yaay!)
Well, after a three hour long plane ride, we made it to Iceland. It. Is. Cold. Like, cold as in Canada in NOVEMBER. AND THIS IS JULY!!!! Well, it was two in the morning. Not to mention the sun never sets here. I´m not exaggerating. When we got there at two o´clock in the morning, it looked as though it could have been four hours later. It just plain doesn´t get dark. Not to mention the one hour time difference from Ireland which is eight hours ahead of Canada.... Sigh....
We were pretty messed up.
Y´know, I had this strangest thing happen when we were taking off from Ireland. I looked down over the green, quilt-like landscape and remembered the whole trip and realized I didn´t wanna leave. I dunno, maybe it´s my distant Irish-ness that wanted to stay. Ireland just feels like my second home, y´know? Yah. Beautiful place.
Aaaanyway, we´re in Iceland now and hopefully today we´re gonna go to the Blue Lagoon. Should be fun.
And this might be the only time i´ll be able to update in Iceland, (who knows where else they´d have free internet,) and if that´s the case, i´ll write a big long entry later to tell you all about it. We´ll just have to see. (Free internet! )
Seeya!

(Later the same day)

Well, that was interesting. We went to the Blue Lagoon which was really pretty. (Again, I got pictures. ) We traveled completley by bus because it costs waaaay too much money to rent a car. The bus ride was a lot longer than we thought it was and we forgot to look at the bus schedule so we missed our bus and had to wait an extra hour and a half for the next one. Oh well, all in the adventure package.
Yah, the blue lagoon was pretty much a man-constructed pool of light blue water with zero visibility. You can literally put your hand just under the surface and you can´t see it. The water is made mostly out of a special kind of white mud that works wonders on your skin, and minerals from deep, deep underground. Also, nearby there´s this steam power plant. The Icelandic are trying to be completley independant from fossil fuels by 2050 apparently.
Man, I am so sunburned...... I´m surprised by how many people speak english here! Even the locals barely have an accent, though I cannot for the life of me understand thier signs! The hardest people to understand are the other forgieners! We even met some people from Canada, Toronto, to be more specific. Canadians are peacefully taking over the world! Mwahahaaa....
Ah, yes. That is all.
Oh, by the way, we´re staying in the same hotel for three nights so I get free internet for the whole part of our trip in Iceland! Yay!